


The Hall of Symphony and Synchronization

by literaryheckler



Series: Land of Symphony and Synchronization [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU, Meta, Music, Orchestra, Trapped, discontinued, occasional ficlets if inspiration strikes, perminantly unfinished
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-27
Updated: 2013-10-23
Packaged: 2017-12-06 17:03:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/738034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literaryheckler/pseuds/literaryheckler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the popular webcomic Hivebent has ended, John Egbert discovers something quite intriguing, which answers several unasked questions, and raises dozens more.</p><p>Where does the soundtrack for Sburb come from?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. End of an Era

Today is April 13th, 2013. It is the four year anniversary of a webcomic you love, and have loved for quite a while. Everybody agrees that today will be the last update, even if you have your doubts. Either way, it’s gonna be big. In the past year or so, the comic has gotten popular enough that a fair few of your friends have read it. All of you have agreed to meet up after classes to see if the last update has come in.

You rush through class in a daze, doing your level best to ignore the thoughts of today’s updates, and failing miserably. You spend the hours ignoring your chem. lab, and wondering what would happen. It couldn't be anything big, right? The climax had come and gone, as had the cleaning up after and the resolution. All that could possibly be left was a goodbye page, a farewell from the characters. You and Dave had discussed this at work extensively the night before. There was no room for any shenanigans. No ironic callback villains. You were all just waiting for the nail in the coffin.

After Professor Valerio kicked you out of Political History, you rushed to the hotel just off campus where you and your friends worked. The Medium Inn was a large affair, sprawling over several hundred acres. It was owned by Jade’s grandfather, an expodtitioneer-cum-entrepreneur who had been injured while exploring ruins on some island in the Pacific. He had moved to Seattle to be cared for by family, and had gotten bored. His back would never be able to stand the kind of stress associated with expeditions, so instead he began building the Medium. It encompassed many functions, purpose-built to give visitors the same experiences he had, or as close as can be when you’re in Seattle. The truly interesting part of it was that somehow, the old man was able to organize the Inn so well that the place was nearly self-sustaining. The enormous underground hydroponic garden managed to supply food for more than a thousand people on a daily basis with no outside interference, and the plants were situated so that they actually cleaned the water well enough that it was potable, and on top of that, there were large trees and vines along the major pathways. Jade had found the massive underground cavern when she was five, and started going “jungling,” so as an excuse to let her continue, her grandfather made it into part of the experience, and invited people to hike through the artificial jungle. That was where Jade spent most of her time, so that’s where you go now.

In the repurposed caverns that house the massive hydroponics tanks, there is a constant sense of unbelonging. You’re pretty sure it’s because despite the fact that you are several dozen meters below bedrock, the cavern is warm, sunlit, and stickily humid. The large heat lamps scattered liberally along the walls and ceiling account for the light and heat, and the ‘ponics account for the humidity, but still the sensation remains that this piece of open jungle and farmland has somehow been transplanted here as a whole. The thick canopy of branches scrape the roof of the cave, conceal the lamps well enough that you would swear it’s just sunlight. Off in the distance, you can even hear the birds Jade had smuggled in to inhabit Isla Harley. You still aren’t sure how they survive down here. You shake off thoughts of birds and, with a sigh, you begin the long process of Harley Hunting.

About twenty minutes later, you have become certain she’s hiding from you. You catch sight of Jade’s long black hair as she pontoons across one of the vats, but before you can reach her, she’s vanished with a giggle. You run to where you last saw her, calling her name, but she just runs with a mischievous laugh. A few minutes later, you find her at Isla Harley. Isla Harley is a raft about fifteen feet across and twenty feet long which Old Man Harley had helped her build, with the stipulation that it could only be used in vats which had recently been harvested so that she wouldn’t kill any food plants. Jade stands on the roof of the tiny shack that she keeps her gardening tools in. Her hands are on her hips, feet wide apart, in a classic Peter Pan stance, and she shouts to you across the water.

“Who seeks to make port at Isla Harley?” she calls in a passable imitation of the old videos of her grandpa. Laughing, you call back.

“Why, it is I, Long-John Egbert, here to pillage and plunder!”

“Fly a flag of truce, or I’ll sink you like a stone!” she bellows, hefting a water balloon out of the small satchel at her hip. You look around desperately for anything that could serve as a white flag, and your eyes fall on a small white flower. You dodge the first water balloon, and you swiftly duck to pick the flower. You stand back up, right into the trajectory of the second water balloon. Drenched, you toss the flower to land at Jade’s feet. She picks it up, giggles again, and then clambers down from the roof to untie the raft from the tree it was moored to.

When Isla Harley finally draws up to the rim of the tank it floats in, you help her tie it down, and you both begin making your way to the maintenance elevator, which is the quickest way back to the surface. You spend the time in the elevator idly chatting about your respective classes. Jade attends the big university in the city with Rose, while you and Dave go to the smaller community college in the suburbs. You both go there because it’s cheaper, but Dave insists it’s because of some ironic rite of passage. But you know him. He just wants to do things under his own power. He could probably mooch tuition for the university off of Bro, the man has the money, but no, Dave wants to do it the hard way. You wish Dad made the kind of money your friend’s guardians did.

At the surface, you take a few short cuts and soon arrive at the sound booth where Dave works. He is in charge of the ambient music playing in each area of the Medium Inn, as well as organizing programs for the more structured occasions. You all know the only reason he landed the job was because it was Bro’s until very recently, and because Old Man Harley knew Dave as a childhood friend of his granddaughter’s. Dave, seeing you arrive, quickly sets up a playlist and comes out to join you.

“Sup. You two ready to find Rose?” he asks with his customary nonchalance.

“Yep! C’mon, Grandpa showed me another shortcut yesterday, and I want to see if it is actually shorter,” replies Jade, and she takes off down the hall. You and Dave follow her through two or three Employee’s Only doors, up a flight of stairs, and down an escalator before Jade slows to a walk. You three go through one more door and emerge behind the Concierge Desk at the back of the Lobby.

Rose looks over from where she is assisting a guest, and surreptitiously gestures for you to sit in the off-duty room while she finishes up. You, Dave, and Jade quietly step into the small lounge and sit down around a table in the corner. Jade, resourceful as ever, pulls her laptop from the satchel, and begins pulling up mspaintadventures.com. No point in making Rose wait, as well.

Speaking of Rose, she shows up at that moment. She walks over to a lady occupying an armchair in a back corner of the lounge, speaking quietly. The lady gets up, and leaves to take Rose’s place at the desk. Rose comes and sits down at the table, and together you and your friends wait.

About ten minutes later, Dave whispers “Update!” and you all crowd in.

Two minutes after that, you are all four crying quietly as you watch the end of an era in your lives.

Five minutes after the flash is over, you move en masse to a couch along one wall so you can snuggle as you commiserate your collective loss. None of you move for well over an hour.

It is the end of an era, and you don’t know what to do.


	2. JOHN: RISE UP

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Hall of Sound and Symphony is the place where the music that synchronizes circumstancially simultanious events happens. This chapter takes place just prior to JOHN: RISE UP.
> 
> Sadly, I lost my muse for this fic before and real writing got done, so all you will have is short, disconnected drabbles that I write when inspiration strikes with months between.

With a small cry of heartbreak, Dad bursts into the symphony hall. Jack looks up, grinning through the terrible facade presented by the prototyping of Becquerel. As Dad runs up, Jack leaps into the air, and with a crack of collapsing vacuum, he is gone. Dad slows, and falls to his knees beside you. You try to speak. To say something. Anything to make your Dad cheer up. All you can manage is a weak gurgle as blood bubbles in your lungs.

"Shhshhsh. You’ll be alright," whispers Dad, cradling your heavy head. He caresses you as he did when you were little. You know he can see the fear on your face; the fear of death, and he comforts you the way he did when you were five and a tornado come through your area. Then, as now, he did everything to protect you, and you were safe.

But now is different, and you know that there is nothing he can do, because you saw the screen. You saw Jack kill you, you saw yourself die on a cold blue slab of granite, and you know that there is nothing anyone can do. You begin to cry as you accept that you will never see your friends again, you will never see your dad again. And as you cry, Dad lifts you up and holds you close in his great strong arms, and he sings.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine." Behind him, the doors open again.

"You make me happy, when the skies are grey," Dave, Jade, and Rose rush in.

"You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you." At the sight of your blood on the floor, they stagger to a halt.

"Please don’t take my sunshine away." Jade and Rose cover their mouths in horror, and Dave’s everpresent poker face has shattered like glass.

"The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping," The girls have begun sobbing, and Dave has fallen to his hands and knees.

"I dreamed I held you in my arms." Rose leans over to cover her face against Jade, who slowly sinks to the floor.

"When I awoke, dear, I was mistaken," Dave is now racked by sobs as he curls in upon himself.

"And I hung my head and I cried." Dad is crying, now, but his voice remains strong as ever.

"You told me once, dear, you really loved me." The door opens again, and Ms. Lalonde and Old Man Harley enter, still dressed in the formal cloths for Bro Strider’s funeral.

"That nothing else could come between." They stop, the same horror on their faces as on their charges.

"But now you’ll leave me, just like your mother," and here his voice finally breaks, and as you slip off into the embrace of blissful oblivion, you hear the last words of the song.

"and now my hopes and dreams have all died."

————-

————-

————-

A while later, Mr Egbert stands up. You look up at him from your position on the floor. The girls are still crying behind you, and the other two adults have found seats, where they sit in silence. Mr. Egbert, on the other hand, turns to you, and though his face is tearstreaked, his expression is firm. He gestures for you to come with him. As you follow him toward the stage, you hear him mutter to himself, “If this hell-begotten place can change our lives for the worse, maybe it can change them for the better, for once.”

When he reaches center-stage, he stops so suddenly you bump into him. You look up to see his face hard with determination despite the tears still flowing. He gestures toward the turntables.

"Dave, I want you to play the exact tune I say on those. Play it soft, play it sad, and mean it with every crevice of your being." You nod, too worn out from crying over two deaths in a row to object. He marches to John’s piano, and you take your place at Bro’s turntables. It only seems fitting, you think. Mr. Egbert looks at you, and plays a sad, weak little melody, then gestures to you. "Just like that."

You nod again, and think. How to make those notes John’s. You decide to play them just how you feel: weak, static filled, and falling apart. You set everything up so it will be perfect on the first try, and you begin.

And the moment you press the first button, the Hall of Symphony and Synchronization comes to life.

And it is not alone in that.

**Author's Note:**

> If you like worldbuilding, I'll be making a separate work in this series devoted entirely to fleshing out the Medium Inn and other differences from canon. Please be aware that by it's very nature, it will be filled to the brim with spoilers.


End file.
